A letter from Ray Davies, Cymru CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament)
Dear Sir,
So Mr Cameron and the Tories have sold us short yet again.
1. He claims Hinkley C will create four thousand jobs. The catch is, under EU law they will have to recruit in Europe ; so most of the highly skilled workforce will come from France and elsewhere in Europe, not Britain and certainly not Wales. Our workers will mainly be in Security and probably painting the front gates of Hinkley Point.
2. When the coalition government failed to find a backer for Hinkley C, we promised France and China that British taxpayers would guarantee them a price double to what electricity costs at the present moment - a price we will all have to pay. What idiot would not accept that offer?
3. In 60 years we have never found a safe method to dispose of the countless thousands of tonnes of highly radioactive waste which threaten our children and future generations; and yet we are going to create more and more.
4. Nuclear power is the economics of the madhouse. America has closed four nuclear power stations with more to follow because they are not economic. Germany has vowed to get rid of every one of their nuclear power stations and invest in renewables; Italy has withdrawn their programme; and France is reducing their dependency on nuclear, because it is expensive as well as dangerous.
5. The site of Hinkley C is geologically unstable, and a nuclear accident could threaten a catastrophe from the Gower to Somerset. Global warming means rising tide levels around the coast, and fracking in Bridgend is another potential threat which could create mini earthquakes around the nuclear site. The whole of Swansea, Newport and Cardiff would be wiped out by a Fukushima style accident.
6. Germany and the US bought out our car industry. France owns our water and the Severn Bridge. Now China- with its dubious safety record- is getting in on the act. Will there be anything left of our resources to sell off?
I and many other environmentalists will be doing our utmost to stop this madness taking place- not for a headline in a newspaper, but for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for this beautiful planet which is so fragile.
Yours faithfully,
Ray Davies